Nneka Ogwumike and Jewell Loyd dueled Saturday night at Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles and despite Loyd’s career-high-matching eight threes (one shy of tying a WNBA record) and 37 points, Nneka’s 27 points, 14 rebounds and four assists pushed LA past .500 with a 92-85 win.
Loyd added six boards and six helpers, but Seattle fell to 0-4; with Minnesota’s win over Washington earlier Saturday night, the Storm are now the only winless team in the association.
Loyd made three treys in the fourth quarter, cutting it to 74-71 with a crossover before a contested make at 5:14 remaining, to 81-74 at 3:24 and to 86-79 at 2:10. But the three that really made the Sparks sweat came from rookie Jade Melbourne with 1:42 to go. Despite having the hot hand, Loyd showed faith in Melbourne, dishing it to her when she was wide-open on the left wing; the Aussie calmly cut it to 86-82.
Two Nneka free throws at 42 seconds made it 88-82, but the Storm still had hope.
Then came an interesting sequence. Sami Whitcomb missed a deep three that would have cut it to three and Nneka got the defensive rebound. But Nneka’s backcourt pass was intercepted by Melbourne, who then quickly made a layup and was fouled. The foul was called as on the floor, but, after review, it became a clear-path foul, so…
